Tapas, or devotion, is a key fire in the engine of our yoga practice. Applied energy toward positive change – a healthy body and mind-spirit. Tapas is one of the Niyamas, or ways of personal behavior, in yoga. The Niyamas guide the “what it’s all about.” “Tapas is the conscious effort to achieve ultimate union
When we are confronted with an inability and lack of power to influence a situation or emotion we interpret the resultant feeling as suffering
I have spent a lot of my years believing that focus was lasering my will. It was how I believed my success in academics, my profession – heck anything – was achieved. Lasering my will was me forcing my dominance or defiance. For example, “I’m not going to let them think I can’t do something because I’m a woman. “ “I’m going to prove I’m worthy as a person of color and do it 10 times better.” I had to be THE best which means superior when you think about it, or when I think about it. And being superior by deductive reasoning means others are inferior. And that just lands me at dominance.
Withdrawing from the senses, or building awareness of our dependence on them and then finding moderation so we are not reacting to them, helps us on the journey toward a clear mind and harmony with spirit. (the ultimate yoga purpose)
How we view flexibility is so different. It’s like this alluring Siren. We are drawn to it and fear it and know that it could hurt us so we also avoid it.
This week’s Home Yoga Practice explores Flexibility in multiple ways as a theme for a yoga plan.
Prana can be loosely defined as “life force energy” or the source of our consciousness, the source of our life force. It is also referred to as breath. Breath exercises are called pranayama. This is often a focus or theme of my practice. I call it a “root” theme because if I’m not in a
Our yoga practice is a great canvas for us to explore and learn about effort. Poses show us when we are straining or giving up. Breath reveals the quality of our ease. Our mind can be the birth place of our effort and where we cultivate sustainable effort, aka focus.
Acceptance of what happens is certainly a worthwhile chew for our times. The pandemic and our fight for freedom, justice and equality can stir discontent. At least it keeps our focus on what’s wrong and the need to fix. It can feel like acceptance means we are OK with the state of the world. It doesn’t.
Developing a personal practice is one of the most difficult, sincere and rewarding things one can do in a life. And while I’m applying this concept to a yoga practice, it holds true for all. A spiritual practice. A martial arts practice. A creative practice. Making it your own, doing it with dedication and devotion,
From the fear and uncertainty and grief of the pandemic, to the rage and fury of the continued racial oppression-terror-erasure in our country, I have asked my creator, “what am I to do or say?” As an Afro-Asian woman of color, as a trauma survivor, as an elder, I ask it. As a mentor to
If you approach your yoga or meditation practice – any conscious-elevating experience – with a result-oriented mind-set you’ve already missed the point. Make a mistake. I want students to feel that stumble in one-legged poses. I encourage folkx to allow that trembly, shaking feeling when their core is exerting in boat pose and it’s
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